The state’s legislative leaders don’t yet have the efficiency study they asked for from the cash-strapped Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA), but for the past two weeks, they’ve had a 19-page report.
That puts the state’s public transit agency a third of the way done with an overdue study lawmakers mandated RIPTA deliver to them by March 1.
The efficiency study was requested by Gov. Dan McKee and the General Assembly as a condition in last year’s state budget to plug the agency’s deficit. RIPTA now faces a $32.6 million shortfall heading into the fiscal year beginning July 1.
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, who has made clear there is no extra money to fill RIPTA’s deficit now that federal pandemic aid has dried up, confirmed Wednesday that he had received the report.
“I received an embargoed synopsis that I have not fully reviewed yet,” Shekarchi said in a statement. “However, I look forward to hearing from RIPTA on how they plan to change their management practices.”
Senate President Valarie Lawson said she, too, plans to review the memo sent by RIPTA.
“This is an issue that has been a top concern of many members of the Senate,“ she said in a statement. “A robust public transit system is vital to our economy and quality of life.”
RIPTA’s board of directors commissioned Canadian-headquartered engineering consulting firm WSP to do the efficiency study on March 27 at a cost of $412,346. The scope outlined in RIPTA’s request for proposals called on the contractor to deliver a memo within 30 business days detailing best practices among public transit agencies, a performance assessment of transit operations within 45 days, and a review of the state’s long-term transit strategy and its implementation within 75 days.
“We’re working rapidly to get all reports coming out of the study to the General Assembly as soon as possible to inform the state budget,” agency spokesperson Cristy Raposo Perry said in an email to Rhode Island Current. “We will update you when the next product is complete.”
WSP completed the first phase on May 16, a report that looked at five other similar-sized transit agencies. The peer comparison report confirmed that RIPTA is not alone in facing a post-pandemic deficit.
The other agencies were Hampton Roads Transit based out of Norfolk, Virginia; Regional Transit Service, which services Rochester, New York; Capital District Transit Authority, which serves Albany; Delaware Transit Corp.; and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.
The report found per capita spending ranged from $23 to $145 among the five, while administrative cost per service hour ranged from $21 to $48. Other data points included advertising revenue and passenger trips per service hour and fare revenue per trip.
But no corresponding figures for RIPTA are provided in WSP’s memo.
“Recognizing the timing constraints related to the state budget process concluding in June, we have structured the scope of work to prioritize delivering critical information as quickly as possible,” Raposo Perry said. “This includes sharing draft deliverables such as this. The final report will include those figures.”
A man who answered the phone at a Connecticut number for WSP said he could not answer questions about the report and then hung up. A spokesperson for the firm in Montreal did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
“Many agencies are facing a drop in funding due to expiring pandemic funding and rising costs due to inflation,” the WSP report states.
WSP pointed to a “novel approach” of one agency’s pursuit of “universal access agreements,” defined as partnerships where employers pay an annual fee to cover their workers’ fares to commute. However, the report does not specify which of the five agencies embraced these initiatives.
RIPTA has already been coordinating with area employers to boost revenue. In January, RIPTA extended its 10x and 28 routes to align with shift schedules at the new Amazon Fulfillment Center off Route 6 in Johnston. In return, Amazon agreed to pay $90,000 annually over the next decade to cover employee fares.
On Wednesday, RIPTA announced that the Omni Providence Hotel First Hotel Group had agreed to partially subsidize fares for 216 employees who work at Rhode Island’s largest hotel. Passes for the general public cost $70, but the pass costs $65 for participants in the “Wave to Work” program. Raposo Perry said the hotel will pay $45 per monthly pass, while hotel employees pay the remaining $20 balance for unlimited bus rides.
Legislators have proposed their own measures to close RIPTA’s deficit. That includes legislation that would put a $100 million transit bond on the 2026 ballot, upping the agency’s share of the gas tax, and added rideshare fees that would go directly toward funding mass transit.
Transit advocates have also pointed to resolutions introduced in the House and Senate in late February that would appropriate the full $32.6 million to keep the agency afloat for another year.
But the Rhode Island General Assembly is facing significant challenges with a budget deficit and potentially devastating federal funding cuts with just weeks to go before the end of the 2025 legislative session.
Among them, a $17.8 million budget shortfall for the state’s homelessness services and an additional $15 million to cover proposed pay raises for state troopers and correctional officers.. The state will also have to make up a $24 million shortfall in education aid to local school districts in its fiscal 2025 and 26 budgets after a correction was made to data on the number of students in poverty.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
